The real estate system in Spain is more complex than in other countries. Real estate has its study, fundamentally, in three Institutions:
+ The Property Registry, is an organization created to give warranty and security to the real estate legal traffic, so that their certifications are presumed accurate and are under the guarantee of the Courts, attesting public registry. The Property Registry gives us the information of who owns the property and other real rights, which is the description of it and the square meters of it, both land and construction, as well as the state of charges that may exist on the aforementioned property. However, said Registry only certifies and gives legal guarantee of ownership and other effective rights in force, and of the state of charges.
Not so of the description that appears in the property registry that does not ensure the identification of the real / topographical meters of the property that is to be acquired, given that often such descriptions have been made by the interested parties themselves, without the need for accreditation. . These descriptions vary if we are before:
– Urban land, in which they are usually coincident with municipal maps, so that the identification of the registry is practically coincident with reality; only problems arise temporarily in case of change of denomination or numbering of streets.
– Scheduled or unscheduled urbanisable lands, of the General Urban Planning Plans or Subsidiary Rules of each municipality, in which the urban planning documents that complete the execution of the plan are required in which the lands are defined, and which contribute to the Registry of the Property the exact and topographic map, so that the description of these properties is usually coincident with reality.
– Rustic soils, the situation is different, and since legally it has not been mandatory for the description of the farms the incorporation of plans, these in the great majority have been based on the manifestations of the interested parties, this has caused that the majority of These properties are not coincident with reality, although the mortgage law regulates procedures for such updates to take place, such as domain files, groupings, declaration of old works, etc. This implies that each purchase should update the descriptions according to reality, but it remains in the hands of the buyers or sellers themselves or the professionals who represent them
+ Cadastre, which also contains who owns the property and the meters that compose it, data that are valid only for the purpose of the local administration can calculate the receipt of IBI or contribution for its annual payment, and this is carried out by the Cadastral Management and Tax Cooperation Center, but this body is not guarantor of the ownership, nor of the meters, however if the cadastre is used or the references from which it is derived to identify the registry property, but this is not it implies that both descriptions of the Land Registry and Cadastre are coincident.
It is important to clarify, therefore, that the properties included in the Property Registry have been consolidated independently of how the properties have been carried out in the Cadastre, historically operating separately. Hence, in most properties, especially in rural land, the physical reality of the property is not coincident with the description of the registry of the Property, or with the cadastral.
+ Urban Planning: they are the urban rules applicable to each property, and in many cases do not apply to existing works in each property, which can even lead to the initiation of urban infractions. The reason for this is that the Property Registry and Urbanism are two disconnected worlds, and that because most descriptions of farms have accessed the registry by the mere statements of the interested parties, without being corroborated with the corresponding administrative licenses, which gives rise to the initiation by the corresponding City Council of Urban Infractions.
All this reality makes it necessary the help of a LAWYER, who checks and coordinates, where appropriate, the reality of the property you buy with the cadastral and registry data, and that through the graphic identification of the properties, helps to increase the security of the buyer Obtaining all the papers, correct and all of them coinciding with the real estate that is what they really buy. But together with the above, THE LAWYER must confirm and be sure of what the urban situation of the property is, and that there is no current urban infraction file that could lead to problems in the future. And finally, a LAWYER helps you to confirm that you acquire property free of burdens, encumbrances and occupants.
